I'm Done

[PMFB-RN]

The medium-sized hospital (275 beds) where I work only has one ICU. But thanks to the unvaxxed we have had to open another ICU for COVID patients again.

We first did this last Winter and it was awful, but it was nobody's fault. Now it is.

We are keeping our COVID ICU open by nurses working overtime. Many have been working five or six 12 to 16-hour shifts a week for months now. People's lives are falling apart. In the last year, two of our ICU nurses have committed suicide. I don't know everything that was going on in their lives, but I'm quite certain that working long hard hours for months, never being home, having no downtime to relax and recharge has a LOT to do with it.

We actually had more COVID patients last Winter, but they were older and not as sick. Like 70s and 80s, vs now it's people in their 50s-60s and they are MUCH sicker. They die like flies. We had a 31-year-old die, and several in their 40s. One died and after to code the doc called and informed her family, but somehow her two teenage daughters who were en route to the hospital didn't get the message and I had to tell them. I'm noticing signs of PTSD in our ICU nurses who are, for the most part, young people. Most are in their 20's. To work so hard taking care of their patients for weeks only to have them die is soul-destroying. I zipped nine people into body bags over the weekend. 

Long planned vacations have been canceled, nurses are losing touch with their families and support systems.

I've spent a lot of time and energy talking to people about COVID and vaccines. I've provided them with the latest data and evidence. I've related what it's like for hospital patients with COVID. But it's a waste of time and effort so I'm done with it. 

Everyone who isn't stupid is already vaccinated and that just leaves the stupid, and you can't fix stupid. I'll no longer refute disinformation with accurate information, just point out they are liars and move on.

My goal is no longer to convince people to get vaccinated. Now my goal is to identify as many of them as possible so that I can do everything in my power to ensure they are never given a position of responsibility again.

I've already started asking those I do business with about their vaccination status. Unvaxxed or refuse to answer and I'm done with them. My mechanic got vaccinated. I had to switch to another (vaccinated) barber. I spoke at two of my local school board meetings in favor of masking the students (including my children) and requiring vaccinations of all staff. I let them know I would be filing a lawsuit if they failed to do either. Luckily they did both.

[MunoRN, RN]

20 minutes ago, lifelive said:

Of course there are going to be challenges,  for all healthcare workers.  But why would want to hold anything against him?? 

I'm struggling to believe you're really trying to be serious there.

Why would we hold it against someone, who we had explained to numerous times why ivermectin was more likely to be harmful than beneficial to him and despite that took an unknown amount of it (when we tried to look at the bottle he became aggressive, and not for the first time) and as a result he took a CRRT machine away from a patient (vaccinated but chronically immunosuppressed) which then resulted in that patient dying.  

Are you really asking why, the same CRRT nurse had to inform a family that we were taking away their family member's patient so that we could provide it to another patient with a higher priority for the machine, and then have to go start CRRT on the patient who's idiocy led to previous patient's now impending death, would "hold anything against him"?  

[PMFB-RN, RN]

2 hours ago, lifelive said:

Are you not in a position of power when you deal with patients? So you're acting brand new now? Anytime you care for a patient,  you're in a position of power. Newsflash, there are laws against Healthcare workers abusing their power when working with patients.  Again, your anger  is going to get someone hurt. As a healthcare provider it's important that you take care of that so that you don't find yourself doing unethical things. 

Voting aginst anti vaxxers in elections and choosing not to buy their goods and services is not unethical. Duh

    

2 hours ago, lifelive said:

You seriously think that those of you who have this strong hate against unvaccinated people won't eventually affect how you treat them as patients? Think again.  As a man thinketh in his heart,  so is he. 

I don't hate them, or anyone for that matter.  That's a lie you fabricated.

    Typical for your kind. Unable to engage in a discussion without resorting to dishonesty.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

34 minutes ago, lifelive said:

  To call people stupid and say you had thought of certain groups dying off is not only unprofessional,  but evil. 

I never said I had thought of certain groups dying off. That's yet another lie you fabricated.

     

[lifelive, BSN]

29 minutes ago, MunoRN said:

I'm struggling to believe you're really trying to be serious there.

Why would we hold it against someone, who we had explained to numerous times why ivermectin was more likely to be harmful than beneficial to him and despite that took an unknown amount of it (when we tried to look at the bottle he became aggressive, and not for the first time) and as a result he took a CRRT machine away from a patient (vaccinated but chronically immunosuppressed) which then resulted in that patient dying.  

Are you really asking why, the same CRRT nurse had to inform a family that we were taking away their family member's patient so that we could provide it to another patient with a higher priority for the machine, and then have to go start CRRT on the patient who's idiocy led to previous patient's now impending death, would "hold anything against him"?  

My initial statement was towards the author of this post and another person who had a fleeting thought that people should die if they don't take the vaccine. You're going off on another rant that wasn't even about what I stated. It is unfortunate that your patient received something from an outsider and it lead to another patient not getting a machine they needed. Even if you want to hold something against that patient, you are only making yourself bitter, which is not good for you or the patient. 

[SunDazed, BSN, RN]

6 hours ago, lifelive said:

My initial statement was towards the author of this post and another person who had a fleeting thought that people should die if they don't take the vaccine. You're going off on another rant that wasn't even about what I stated. It is unfortunate that your patient received something from an outsider and it lead to another patient not getting a machine they needed. Even if you want to hold something against that patient, you are only making yourself bitter, which is not good for you or the patient. 

Just curious, what you are taking away from this discussion? Are you trying to change minds? Convert nurses? Gain meaningful understanding of what others struggle with during a crisis? 

It seems like maybe you are just trolling for a fight? 

Not sure you are winning anyone over. Your words and tone are harsh and accusatory when I read them. What do you want others to take away from your point of view? 

[klone, MSN, RN]

10 hours ago, lifelive said:

I read your post, and I read it more than once. "Maybe it would be better for all of us if all those who choose not to get vaccinated just get sick and die." Heartless. Anything else you said doesn't even matter. Why even have such an evil thought.  We all knew as nurses that we would encounter patients who "don't stick to the treatment" so why are some of acting brand new?? People been refusing vaccines, this isn't a new phenomenal.  Are healthcare workers exhausted,  absolutely.  All of us are exhausted from this situation.  But I have never had a fleeting thought about things being better if certain groups of people die due to them not doing what we feel they need to do. End of the discussion.  

 

If anything else I say doesn't even matter, then why bother even responding?

If you read my post, you will see that I said that it was a FLEETING THOUGHT, and that I recognized it for what it was (horrible), and I felt sadness afterwards for being at this place where I would even have it. It's not hatred or evil. It's called compassion fatigue. And if there is a healthcare provider out there who has worked through this pandemic and hasn't had even a nanosecond of compassion fatigue over the last 20 months, well then you're a ***ing saint. 

And I can guarandamntee you that family members and loved ones of people who have died because there were no hospital beds available because unvaccinated Covid patients are clogging up our hospitals probably also had that same fleeting thought. And that doesn't make them evil. It makes them human.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

11 hours ago, lifelive said:

My initial statement was towards the author of this post and another person who had a fleeting thought that people should die if they don't take the vaccine. You're going off on another rant that wasn't even about what I stated. It is unfortunate that your patient received something from an outsider and it lead to another patient not getting a machine they needed. Even if you want to hold something against that patient, you are only making yourself bitter, which is not good for you or the patient. 

Now that you have outed yourself as a dishonest person of low moral character as evidenced by the falsehoods you posted, your views and opinions are irrelevant. 

[toomuchbaloney]

13 minutes ago, PMFB-RN said:

Now that you have outed yourself as a dishonest person of low moral character as evidenced by the falsehoods you posted, your views and opinions are irrelevant. 

These new members are likely fully engaged in the cesspool of misinformation that IS the facebook Covid contribution.  

facebook told the White House to focus on the ‘facts’ about vaccine misinformation. Internal documents show it wasn’t sharing key data. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/28/facebook-covid-misinformation/

[PMFB-RN, RN]

24 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

These new members are likely fully engaged in the cesspool of misinformation that IS the facebook Covid contribution.  

facebook told the White House to focus on the ‘facts’ about vaccine misinformation. Internal documents show it wasn’t sharing key data. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/28/facebook-covid-misinformation/

I'm not sympathetic to supposed health care professionals who fall for disinformation. 

   I'm on facebook,  I've seen it, all my nurse friends are as well. But we have engaged in critical thinking and its left us unaffected.

[toomuchbaloney]

29 minutes ago, PMFB-RN said:

I'm not sympathetic to supposed health care professionals who fall for disinformation. 

   I'm on facebook,  I've seen it, all my nurse friends are as well. But we have engaged in critical thinking and its left us unaffected.

Yes. Many of us are still able to discern truth from fiction.  Those conservative members who are indoctrinated by their other media consumption and then simmer that conservative political misinformation from their cable television and radio listening choices in the pot of disinformation targeting conservatives on facebook and Youtube are so lost that they don't even want to be found.  

An alarming number of our fellow countrymen are in need of an intervention to reorient them to reality.  

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I participate in an online forum for a particular medical condition, and it has started to have new posters casting doubt on vaccines. They are claiming that their cardiologists are concerned about interactions between the vaccine and cardiac drugs. I am skeptical. 

[PMFB-RN, RN]

4 minutes ago, nursej22 said:

I participate in an online forum for a particular medical condition, and it has started to have new posters casting doubt on vaccines. They are claiming that their cardiologists are concerned about interactions between the vaccine and cardiac drugs. I am skeptical. 

My reaction is show me the evidence or its it's fake.